Good jobs becoming more scarce

Continuing on the theme of jobs and the uneven economic recovery, another report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research looks at the availability of ‘good jobs’ for workers with different levels of education. A ‘good job’ is defined as “one that pays at least $37,000 per year (that was the median wage for men back in 1979, adjusted for inflation). A good job, they argue, should also provide health insurance and offer at least some retirement benefits.”

In 2010, only 24.6 workers had good jobs. And the lower your education level, the less likely you were able to find a good job. The report points out that this is not only due to the Great Recession, but because of long-term trends in the economy: “The deterioration in the economy’s ability to generate good jobs reflects long-run changes in the U.S. economy, not short-run factors related to the recession or recent economic policy.” The economic recovery, however, is being led by a growth in low-wage jobs, which is stunting the recovery. These low wage jobs are not contributing to workers’ buying power– meaning, they are not earning enough to then spend their income on things and get money circulating back in the economy. Despite the fact that the nation is an official economic recovery period, these persistent trends that began long before the recession are not being addressed, which has led to the disparity that we see in this recovery. So instead of a broadly shared recovery, we continue to foster and economy characterized by growing inequality.